Booker's Jobs

by Editor
August 7, 2013 at 9:36 am

https://www.smartertimes.com/966/booker-jobs

Sometimes the problem with the Times isn't so much the ideology as the intelligibility, or lack of it. Consider this sentence from a front-page Times article about the news that the mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, who is running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, co-founded a tech company and earned $1.3 million for paid speeches while serving as mayor of Newark: "Waywire has also provided jobs for associates of Mr. Booker: the son of a top campaign supporter and his social media consultant, who is now on his Senate campaign staff."

I'm usually pretty good at reading comprehension, but I couldn't figure out what that meant. The rest of the article is not any help.

Here are some possibilities for what the three Times reporters who wrote the article, David Halbfinger, Raymond Hernandez, and Claire Cain Miller, might have been trying to convey. I've added names to make the scenarios more concrete:

1. Mr. Booker's top campaign supporter, David, and Mr. Booker's social media consultant, Claire, together have a son, Raymond. Raymond is now on Mr. Booker' Senate campaign staff and is also employed by Waywire.

2. Mr. Booker's top campaign supporter, David, has a son, Raymond. Raymond, a social media consultant, is on Mr. Booker's campaign staff and is also employed by Waywire.

3. Mr. Booker's top campaign supporter, David, has a son, Raymond, who is employed by Waywire. Mr. Booker's social media consultant, Claire, is on Mr. Booker's campaign staff and is also employed by Waywire.

There may be other possibilities, too. Feel free to add your own in the comments. In the olden days there were editors at the Times who were good at fixing sentences to make them intelligible. Maybe too many of them have retired or taken buyouts, or maybe, since it is August, they are off on vacation.

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